


Chemistry

by Jeldenil



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Developing Friendships, Fluff without Plot, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-17
Updated: 2017-04-17
Packaged: 2018-10-20 04:52:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,458
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10655304
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jeldenil/pseuds/Jeldenil
Summary: This is a fic about Lucius' and Severus' friendship as children. There is not much plot, it's mainly what I could picture happening.





	Chemistry

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Mooseknucklesss](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mooseknucklesss/gifts).



Diagon Alley was buzzing with consumers. It was a week before the school year would start and dozens of parents accompanying their children crowded together in a quest for books, robes, pets, wands, cauldrons and anything else the students would need for their lessons. A tall, blond twelve-year old boy huffed indignantly alongside his father as they tried to elbow their way through the throngs of adults and children towards the apothecary. The pair were easily best dressed out of the entire public gathered, wearing spotless grey robes and fine leather shoes. The boy might have been considered as a hippie with his long hair, if the hair in question wasn't so meticulously cared for and tamed into a flawless ponytail. His father wore his hair short, but had a sophisticated handlebar moustache and a bowler hat to complete his pure English gentleman look. 

“Did we have to come here today, father?” He complained. “It's infested with mudbloods just before term.”  
“Lucius! Be more discreet and quit whining. If it weren't for your careless experiments with your kit, we wouldn't need to replace your ingredients.”  
“I thought you preferred me to remain on good standing with professor Slughorn. I was practising.”  
His father gave him a berating look and the boy shut up, knowing all too well he had overstepped. He was not supposed to repeat certain family schemes in public. In silence, they entered the dank little shop, the boy covering his nose against the strong smell of ingredients. His father merely grimaced, and paced over towards the counter to hand a list of necessities to the busy little apothecary's owner. The man in question was talking to a mother and her young son, who was gazing around the shop with large, eager eyes. He noticed the regal pair right away, and almost dropped the crystal pot he was showing his current customers.

“Mister Malfoy! It's always a joy to be of service to you. If you could just spare a moment while I count out Mrs Snape-Prince's order of eel eyes, I'll make sure to stand at full attention in a minute.”  
“No need to rush, Apollo. I'm sure Eileen deserves as much as your attention as I do.”  
Mr Malfoy turned to smile at a thin, pale woman who was dressed in a haphazard assortment of rags, much to the twelve-year-old's dismay. He could see that the woman had the family traits of the Prince family, a pureblood line he was taught to acknowledge and respect from his father's wizarding genealogy books. How come she looked so poor? Her son, half his age by the looks of it, was dressed even worse. His black hair looked especially uncared for, and the blond boy thought he could spot a bruise just under his collar. 

Conforming to his good manners, the older boy offered the younger a hand in greeting.  
“Hello, my name is Lucius Malfoy. My father is an acquaintance of your mother.”  
“Severus Snape,” the smaller kid introduced himself, looking all but comfortable. “Do you go to Hogwarts?”  
“Of course I do. Like my father before me. You'll go there too, when you're old enough, right?”  
The younger boy glanced up to his mother, who was currently engaged in an awkward conversation with Lucius' father.  
“My mother wants me to.” He whispered confidentially. “But my father is a muggle, and we do not have much money.”  
Lucius' nose crinkled, and he looked Severus over again. “I can see that. The... not much money part.”  
“Lucius!” His father warned and Lucius frowned. He should probably be more polite, even if this halfblood was down on his luck.  
“What were you looking at just now?” He asked the boy, quickly changing the subject.  
“Jobberknoll feathers,” Severus pointed. “Rosewater. Castor Oil. I could catch leeches myself, I do it all the time. But I would really like to have some of the better ingredients. I help mother with the medicines we use at home. I think I could make a cure for spattergroit that is far easier to use than the ones we have now.”  
Lucius blinked at the boy.  
“How old are you?”  
“I will be six year and eight months in two weeks. Why?”  
“Just that you seem to know more about potionmaking than most of the students twice your age.”  
“Mother taught me. She lets me read her old schoolbooks. And sometimes I find out how the recipes can improve.”  
Lucius nodded, a studied neutral expression on his face. In fact, he was quite impressed by the younger boy's knowledge and apparent dedication. It was not uncommon to hear of hard work, as he studied hard to get the best marks in all of his classes himself. But even Lucius had not posessed so much advanced knowledge at such a young age. He glanced up at his father, and remembered one of his many wisdoms. Keep an eye out for riches, they come disguised.

“You should visit our manor some day, Severus,” Lucius mused. “We have potion books in the library you might not have seen before.”  
Already, Lucius was thinking about how he could work with a younger, impressionable boy, and such a talented one at that. Surely, he would be able to find a use for this one.  
“You live in a manor?” Severus paled a little.  
Lucius smiled. He knew he would be able to win the younger boy over.  
“Yes, we do. I'll speak to my father and see if I can get him to let you come over. You'll like it, I'm sure. My mother has a herb garden. Maybe she'll let you pick some ingredients.”  
“Do you think she would?”  
The younger boy seemed incredulous, but hopeful.  
“I know how to convince her,” Lucius spoke confidently.  
“It's just a matter of pulling the right strings.”

“Lucius, if you are done bothering Eileen's son, we can soon return to the Manor.” Mr Malfoy tapped his son's shoulder gently, before turning to Eileen and nodding his polite goodbye.  
“It was lovely to meet you again, Eileen. We never get to see you at Slytherin reunions. Do take care.”  
The woman nodded back dourly.  
“Thank you, Abraxas. Send my regards to Calesta.”  
They left the shop with their purchases neatly packed and sent off with one of their house-elves. Lucius was quite used to getting treated with priority by any shopkeeper, and didn't linger on the knowledge that Severus and his mother were left behind halfway through their shopping order. They made another stop at Gringott's and one at Twillfitt's & Tatting's to pick up a gown for Lucius' mother, before returning to the Manor. 

Once at home, Lucius questioned his father about Mrs Snape-Prince and her son.  
“How come they are so poor? How come she married a MUGGLE, father? Why did she do that to her son?”  
Abraxas answered his son's questions as well as he could. Apparently, Eileen had been a few years below him and Lucius' mother, and had once been a closer friend.  
“Her family ostracised and disowned her when she married that Muggle, of course. She has a beautiful sister, who married a pureblood Wizard, and they got everything. As for why she married that Muggle, well, I can't say that Eileen was very popular with the Wizards, I'm afraid. She had one suitor, however, but when she beat him with gobblestones, he grew to dislike her. Never been too intelligent, the Crabbes.”  
Lucius stored that information like he did with everything he could possibly use in the future.  
“Her son is only a halfblood, of course. But I think he has potential, Father. Can I correspond with him? Do you know where they live?”  
“If you must, Lucius. You are allowed charity. I think we could possibly pry the required information from Bernice, Eileen's sister. Your mother writes her sometimes.” 

Over the course of that year, Lucius and Severus exchanged letters every now and then. It took until the next summer for the older boy to convince his parents to invite him and his mother for an afternoon tea. Receiving Severus' Muggle father was, of course, out of the question. The pair were received in the Northern Tea Room, which was smaller and less luxurious than the one at the South side of the Manor. Abraxas said it was both to remind his guests of their status and so as not to overwhelm them. Even in their best formal robes, the Snape-Princes stuck out like a sore thumb in the pristinely white room. Their robes were clearly secondhands, and Lucius could actually see where Severus' were made smaller to fit the boy. They were faded and thin from having been washed too often, but still the younger boy composed himself like he didn't care about the quality of his clothes, or his badly groomed hair, or the fading bruises he sported on his wrists this time.

He sat straight and quiet at their tea table, politely thanking Lucius' mother for the tea and sandwiches, and his father for the invitation. Eileen seemed initially nervous, but relaxed as Lucius' parents engaged her in polite, boring conversation. She didn't bring up any subjects of her own, although she asked some obligatory questions about Lucius' schoolwork and teachers. All in all, Lucius could see why she'd been seen as a dull, unappealing girl back when she attended Hogwarts. Her features were bland at most, with heavy brows and an unwavering dour expression. Severus' face was more expressive, and Lucius observed that the younger boy was enjoying what was probably his first proper meal in weeks. He waited for him to eat his fill, then asked permission for them to leave the table so he could show Severus around. 

As he'd promised that fateful day in Diagon Alley, Lucius took Severus to the library first. It was almost sweet to watch the little boy gape at the sheer amount of rare and expensive tomes, textbooks, spellbooks, encyclopaedia and what have you.  
“This is our potions section,” Lucius said, leading his new friend to a row of three bookcases, stretching from floor to the high ceiling, filled with standard works and exclusive collections about potion brewing, herbs, cauldrons, dragonblood, potion theory etcetera.  
“Can I... really look at those books?” Severus was incredulous.  
“Of course. But you have to promise me to be careful. I don't want to get into any trouble.” Lucius smiled down at the smaller boy.  
“I know how to handle books!” Severus said indignantly.  
“Good. And as my friend, I trust you with them.” Lucius emphazized. The younger boy beamed and pointed at a large tome about the various uses of leeches.  
“These are ingredients I can practice with at my leasure,” he explained. Lucius nodded in understanding.  
“I'll summon a house-elf to bring you parchment and quill, for notes.” 

They spent a little over an hour in the Library, Lucius dutifully doing some homework as he watched over the young boy, who was indeed, very careful with the books and made meticulous notes. He was a strange boy, Lucius mused. At his age, he'd rather enjoyed flying and spending time outdoors. Severus didn't seem to be interested in anything of the sorts. Really, the kid could only talk about potions, potion theory, spells, and wizarding history. He was like a teacher trapped in the body of a seven-year-old. At long last, Lucius got bored however, and persuaded Severus to follow him to his mother's herb garden.  
“She says you can pick some of the moly and one or two branches of nightshade. Not too much.”  
That was enough to send the younger boy practically flying to the garden, much to Lucius' relief, who stretched and inhaled the fresh air as if he'd been locked up in Azkaban for a month. 

“Would you like to go for a fly when we're done with the herbs?” Lucius suggested as they carefully made their way through Calesta's flowerbeds. Flippa, his personal house-elf followed them around, carrying vials and scissors.  
“I don't know. Mother said we should go home before supper. My father... he's against magic. He doesn't know we're here.” The younger boy confessed. “He gets home for supper, usually.”  
Lucius was taken aback. The boy seemed cowed by the perspective of meeting his Muggle father. The bruises on his wrists suddenly looked more suspicious. This was not a kid who'd fall from trees or play rough with other boys, after all. Lucius looked at the sun.

“Then we must hurry back. It's very close to suppertime already. Why didn't you tell me sooner?”  
“I'm sorry, Lucius,” Severus said nervously. “I must have forgotten the time in your Library.”  
“Let Flippa take care of cutting the herbs this time,” Lucius said decidedly. “We should be heading back now. The elf can apparate.”  
Reluctantly, Severus agreed. They all but ran back towards the Manor (Malfoys don't run, Lucius had learned from his father), the older boy picking the younger boy up and carrying him on his back when Severus couldn't keep up with his longer legs. The kid clung on to him, apologizing over and over again for his failure to inform Lucius about his curfew.  
“Don't worry. Next time, you and your mother should join us for Lunch instead. That gives us more time.”  
They sped across the wide meadow which stretched for half an acre between the manor and the herb garden, Lucius getting slightly out of breath.  
“I... I should walk!” Severus protested, apparently feeling guilty. But Lucius didn't listen. He realized he rather enjoyed carrying the younger boy. It was like he had a younger brother, something he'd often longed for. 

Back in the Manor, they were just in time to catch Eileen stubbornly refusing to accept a parting gift of some of Lucius' old robes he had grown out of.  
“Thank you, Calesta, but I can't accept more then you and your husband already gave us. We make do. Besides, my husband would notice.”  
Severus looked disappointed, but didn't go against his mother. Lucius made a mental notes to give the younger boy some better robes once the kid got to Hogwarts. It wasn't like his Muggle father could find out what he wore in the school. 

“Malfoys don't carry beggars on their backs,” Abraxas scolded him once Eileen and Severus had departed via floo.  
“I'm sorry, Father,” Lucius apologized meekly.  
“It won't happen again.”  
He wasn't sure that he was being truthful to his father. But he couldn't help himself, he liked the younger boy. Even if he got him in trouble. Somehow, Lucius had a feeling he would get in trouble with Severus a lot. And somehow, he thought he would carry him again.


End file.
